Celebrity dish … Matt Preston, food journalist, restaurant critic, and television presenter

The second series of MasterChef returns to our tv screens later this year. Whether or not you think it should be called MasterCook, it has engaged the Australian public, kids in particular who now talk about “plating up”. So I thought we might get the inside scoop from one of the judges.

Although Matt was an experienced writer in his native UK, it was not till he came to Australia that he started writing about food and soon made his mark, winning “Best New Writer” in the Australian Food Media Awards when I was President of the Food Media Club Australia (now the Australian Association of Food Professionals).

What is your earliest food memory: A casserole from my grandmother’s wood-fired aga or a World Cup Willy nougat bar.

What is the strangest meal you’ve ever been served: A meal at El Bulli that included a plate of rose petals, undercooked kidney and another dish of ice. Grilled scorpion was also pretty weird.

What is your signature dish: Pizza

What is your favourite cookbook: Margaret Fulton’s Encyclopaedia of Food and Cookery

What do you never eat: Undercooked kidneys or whale

What are the five ingredients you would take to a desert island: parmesan or feta, flour, limes or lemon, a coop of live chickens, white peaches and avocadoes

What are you having for dinner tonight: Whatever the good Lord provides; whatever is on the menu or whatever’s in the fridge.

Thanks Matt.